By the third article, the judicial power of the United States
is vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts, as
the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish:
These courts, and these only, will have a right to decide
upon the laws of the United States, and all questions arising
upon their construction, and in a judicial manner to
carry those laws into execution; to which the courts both
superior and inferior of the respective States and their
judges and other magistrates are rendered incompetent.
To the courts of the general government are also confined
all cases in law or equity, arising under the proposed constitution,
and treaties made under the authority of the
United States--all cases affecting ambassadors, other public
ministers and consuls--all cases of admiralty and maritime
jurisdiction--all controversies to which the United
States are a party--all controversies between two or more
States--between a State and citizens of another State--between
citizens of the same State, claiming lands under
grants of different States, and between a State or the citizens
thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects.
Whether therefore, any laws or regulations of the Congress,
or any acts of its President or other officers are contrary to, or
not warranted by the constitution, rests only with the judges,
who are appointed by Congress to determine; by whose determinations
every State must be bound. Should any question
arise between a foreign consul and any of the citizens
of the United States, however remote from the seat of empire,
it is to be heard before the judiciary of the general
government, and in the first instance to be heard in the
supreme court, however inconvenient to the parties, and
however trifling the subject of dispute.

Should the mariners of an American or foreign vessel,
while in any American port, have occasion to sue for their
wages, or in any other instance a controversy belonging to
the admiralty jurisdiction should take place between them
and their masters or owners, it is in the courts of the general
government the suit must be instituted; and either
party may carry it by appeal to its supreme court; the injury
to commerce and the oppression to individuals which
may thence arise need not be enlarged upon. Should a
citizen of Virginia, Pennsylvania, or any other of the
United States be indebted to, or have debts due from, a
citizen of this State, or any other claim be subsisting on
one side or the other, in consequence of commercial or
other transactions, it is only in the courts of Congress that
either can apply for redress. The case is the same should
any claim subsist between citizens of this State and foreigners,
merchants, mariners, and others, whether of a commercial
or of any other nature, they must be prosecuted
in the same courts; and though in the first instance they
may be brought in the inferior, yet an appeal may be made
to the supreme judiciary, even from the remotest State in
the union.

The inquiry concerning, and trial of every offence
against, and breach of the laws of Congress, are also confined
to its courts; the same courts also have the sole right
to inquire concerning and try every offence, from the lowest
to the highest, committed by the citizens of any other
State, or of a foreign nation, against the laws of this State
within its territory--and in all these cases the decision may
be ultimately brought before the supreme tribunal, since
the appellate jurisdiction extends to criminal as well as to civil
cases.

And in all those cases where the general government has
jurisdiction in civil questions, the proposed constitution not
only makes no provision for the trial by jury in the first instance,
but by its appellate jurisdiction absolutely takes away
that inestimable privilege, since it expressly declares the supreme
court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law
and fact.--Should therefore, a jury be adopted in the inferior
court, it would only be a needless expence, since on an
appeal the determination of that jury, even on questions of
fact, however honest and upright, is to be of no possible
effect--the supreme court is to take up all questions of fact--to
examine the evidence relative thereto--to decide upon them
in the same manner as if they had never been tried by a jury--nor
is trial by jury secured in criminal cases: it is true, that in
the first instance, in the inferior court the trial is to be by
jury, in this and in this only, is the difference between
criminal and civil cases; but, Sir, the appellate jurisdiction
extends, as I have observed, to cases criminal as well as to
civil, and on the appeal the court is to decide not only on the
law but on the fact, if, therefore, even in criminal cases the
general government is not satisfied with the verdict of the
jury, its officer may remove the prosecution to the supreme
court, and there the verdict of the jury is to be of no
effect, but the judges of this court are to decide upon the fact
as well as the law, the same as in civil cases.